“I’m a musician,” he says. “I love to play music; I can’t imagine anything else. When I was young, I latched onto this idea of being a career artist, like B.B. King and Willie Nelson. I could be in a band that’s a one-hit wonder, or a band that’s big for a few years and then went away, or I could be a career artist.” Erupting with another scratchy laugh, he reasons, “I might not be able to age very gracefully, but Willie Nelson’s still having a pretty good time.”